pharmaphorum Podcast

Pharma and tech companies are working more closely together than ever. As proven by the news of Merck and NVidia’s new partnership, for example. But while the idea of using AI for drug discovery has been around for a while now, patient access has an awfully long way to catch up to the promise of these new therapies.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dean Erhardt, founder of D2 Solutions, an end-to...

Despite billions spent on new technology and improving data analytics, companies continue to struggle with commercial launch success, with around 35% of launches missing expectations since 2012.

Why is launch underperformance such a big problem, and why isn’t technology alone offering a sufficient solution? In a special episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, sponsored by Axtria, we spoke with Amanjeet Singh Saluja, a Principal at Axt...

Here at pharmaphorum we tend to focus on the latest developments in the pharmaceutical space. And to be fair, that’s quite a lot to keep us busy. But the history of pharma is full of incredible stories that might just be new to a lot of people, even those inside the industry.

On today’s episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, host Jonah Comstock speaks with Thomas Goetz, former executive editor of Wired; co-founder of Iodine, a drug d...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Lance Baldo, CEO of Beacon Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company harnessing the transformative power of gene therapy to deliver meaningful outcomes for severe ocular diseases.

Baldo discusses the ocular disease landscape, as well as Beacon’s work targeting X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) and geographic atrophy (GA), and what the f...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, recorded at BIO-Europe Spring in Lisbon, Portugal, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Kashif Sadiq, founder and CEO of DenovAI Biotech, a company that believes humanity is on the cusp of a protein design revolution that stands to transform both human health and the world around us.

Sadiq discusses the company's springboard from AION Labs - with a first-of-its-kind alliance of AstraZen...

At BIO-Europe Spring 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Dr Olga Nissan, vice president of business development at Evogene, a computational chemistry company, specialising in the generative design of small molecules for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

Nissan discusses recent developments at Evogene, including its extended collaboration with Google Cloud to develop and integrate AI agents i...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh was joined by Rob DiCicco, vice president of portfolio management at Transcelerate Biopharma Inc, for a conversation on the barriers and the breakthroughs in making AI work in drug development and clinical trials.

DiCicco discusses why AI adoption in clinical trials is so different from preclinical research and development, as well as how synthetic control arms and in silico ...

Genetic diseases are notoriously challenging to treat, especially when each condition requires a tailored approach. With over 10,000 known genetic disorders, developing individual therapies for each one has been an immense hurdle, particularly for rare diseases affecting small patient populations. But what if there was a way to address multiple conditions simultaneously, using a single, universal approach?

In today’s episode of the...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Andrew Mackinnon, senior vice president and executive general manager at Medable, about leveraging AI to transform clinical development and accelerate lifesaving therapies to patients.

Mackinnon discusses ‘white space’ in R&D, about integrating generative and agentic AI with human-in-the-loop oversight while prioritising patient safety and regul...

For 30 years, the AOP Health Group has been dedicated to developing innovative solutions to address unmet medical needs, particularly in the fields of rare diseases and intensive care medicine, and notably in cardiology and pulmonology, as well as haemato-oncology and advanced therapies.

As Rare Disease Day approaches, in a special episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, sponsored by AOP Health, we spoke with Melissa Fellner, VP of Gl...

Slowly but surely – and just in time for the State of the Union – the full picture of the Trump Administration’s Most-Favoured Nations drug pricing policy is coming into focus. At the end of last year, CMS published the draft guidance for its GLOBE and GUARD pricing models, which establish MFN pricing in Medicare Part B and Part D, respectively. And earlier this month TrumpRx – the government’s promised patient-facing discount port...

Following his return from San Francisco and the JP Morgan Healthcare conference last month, editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock sat down with pharmaphorum web editor Nicole Raleigh to discuss what he heard and learned on the ground in California.

2026 marked the 44th year of the annual meeting: Comstock shares his top insights, goes into the details from the panel he moderated at the Informa Biotech Showcase, and suggests his key takeaw...

The rising cost of drugs in 2025 was driven by several factors, including inflation, supply chain issues, and the demand for specialty drugs – straining already overburdened health systems.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Jeff Harper, head of product at IntelliGuard, about these pressing issues and what hospitals can expect as we progress further into 2026.

The conversation also explores the rol...

The term "omnichannel engagement" has become embedded in today’s healthcare conversations. Yet the biopharmaceutical industry often approaches it superficially – treating it as a trendy buzzword instead of a meaningful strategy for connecting with the sector's two most vital audiences: patients and healthcare providers (HCPs).

In this episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, developed in partnership with Reverba Global, editor-in-chief...

Outdated training and behaviours impact patient outcomes and can lead to patient risk.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Lisa Sims, executive director of learning strategy & operations at Novartis, for a conversation on modern training for pharma and how AI and data – quality data – can help personalise learning at scale.

You can listen to episode 243 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player ...

At the JP Morgan Healthcare conference this year, a lot of the discourse around AI drug discovery focused on making the leap from purely in silico drug discovery operations to real-world operations that are able to incorporate wet lab data in an iterative way.

This is easily said, but to do it requires innovating new processes and infrastructures. On the sidelines of the show, pharmaphorum’s Jonah Comstock caught up with Yann Gasto...

The global impact of digital transformation in the last few decades cannot be understated. And now, of course, artificial intelligence (or AI) is making headlines for its potential to transform lives.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, Deep Dive editor Eloise McLennan speaks with Mohit Manrao, SVP, head of US oncology at AstraZeneca, and president of the AstraZeneca Foundation.

The conversation explores the application of AI in cancer ...

On-site on the sidelines of JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco this year, pharmaphorum editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock sat down with Andrew Beck, co-founder and CEO at PathAI.

The conversation covers what PathAI has been up to lately in AI within diagnostics in pathology, explores what’s been discussed on the ground at the conference, and also touches upon equality and access to precision diagnostics. Additionally, Bec...

An increasing prevalence of immunodeficiency and autoimmune disorders has led to increasing demand for plasma-derived immunoglobulin therapies and a need for scalable and sustainable treatment solutions.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Jörg Schüttrumpf, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Innovation Officer of Grifols and Chief Executive Officer at Biotest, a Grifols company. The conversation explores ...